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Lesson plan

Aaron Bos-Lun to Teach for America in Miami

June 5, 2012

Aaron Bos-Lun ’12 has been chosen to join the Teach for America corps, a highly selective organization that trains recent college graduates who commit to teaching in a low-income community for two years. He will teach at an elementary school in Miami, Fla.

As a political science major, his plan all along has been to combine a career in politics and education. “Education, democracy and international security are all about building a better world. Democracy creates the conditions for a peaceful and productive society, and education enables people to create the best version of themselves within such an environment,” he says.

He views Teach for America as an opportunity to combine education and social change in an up close and personal way. In his second year of Teach for America, he plans to begin a master’s degree program in education and social change at the University of Miami.

Bos-Lun arrived at Wheaton with plenty of community service and real-world experience fueling his passion to connect with and to help others. He had attended the United World College in New Mexico, a two-year school embracing cross-cultural unity, where he got to know students from all over the world. He also had gained valuable experience as a volunteer for City Year in Washington, D.C., where he spent 60 hours a week working with middle school students.

“I saw kids deemed ‘unteachable’ who were taught, and ‘unreachable’ kids who were reached,” he says. “The experience deepened my commitment to the idea that our country has more than enough resources to solve the social problems we face, and I saw through the faces of kids I worked with that I was capable of being part of that.”

Bos-Lun, who is a member of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa and has twice received the Presidents' Award for having a 3.9 GPA, says that his time at Wheaton has been “a four-year microcosm of what I want my whole life to be—full of growth and adventures, challenging, rewarding, intense and fun.”

One adventure began in the summer following his freshman year, when he traveled to Cape Town, South Africa, as a Wheaton Fellow to intern at the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust. There, he co-facilitated an HIV/AIDS program that provided high school students with the means to help educate their peers to protect themselves against disease. He also worked in youth camps and taught English and life skills classes to sixth graders. Returning to the same town again as a Davis International Fellow in the summer before his senior year, he was able to reconnect with the community that had impacted his life.

“I left South Africa—and my kids—a second time, knowing that education and youth development had to be part of my life in the future.”

Going straight from South Africa to the Wheaton study-abroad program in Bhutan, he taught English and ran leadership workshops for two fifth grade classes as an intern at the Jigme Losel Primary School. He also hosted a weekly national radio show for KUZOO 105-FM, the only youth radio channel in Bhutan.

He has continued to dedicate himself to community at Wheaton, where he has been an intern for the Office of Service, Spirituality, and Social Responsibility. He has also been a preceptor; senator for the Student Government Association; a procedural advisor for the college hearing board; co-president for Wheaton’s chapter of the Roosevelt Institute; and a mentor for the Higher Education Readiness Opportunity (HERO) program. He has also been a research assistant for the Political Science Department, and a writer for the Wheaton Wire.

His leadership on campus earned him the Patricia King Leadership Award for campus involvement in 2009 and 2010, and the Eliza Baylies Wheaton Leadership Award for 'groundbreaking campus leadership' in 2011.

His optimism has made an impression on peers and professors alike.

“He has a great sense of humor—I can hear his laughter now, ringing in my ears!” says Assistant Professor of History Dolita Cathcart. “Aaron is one of those rare students who arrived on campus already committed to social justice for all. His commitment to his beliefs and desire to help make this country, this world, a better place for all, but, in particular, for the underserved, the marginalized, and the poor has never wavered. This next step in working for Teach for America is a logical move for someone committed to change peoples’ lives for the better.”—Elizabeth Meyer ’14